Coach James Pascoe is reluctant to bring back attacking livewire Luke Remington from a chronic shoulder injury but he won't be surprised if he wants to play in the Lambton Jaffas' must-win final-round clash with Broadmeadow on Sunday.
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Remington is one of five Jaffas players out or in doubt for the round-14 match at Magic Park which they need to win to have any chance of making the top five.
Lambton had the bye last weekend and slipped to sixth, on 18 points. To make the finals, they need to win on Sunday and hope Azzurri or Olympic, both on 20, don't beat Lake Macquarie and Valentine respectively.
Jaffas remain without Finn Parris (ankle) and Scott Pettit (calf), while Remington, Matt Thompson (calf) and Nathan Verity (hamstring) could return. The trio have been missing since the 1-1 draw with Weston in round 11.
Pascoe, though, said he was reluctant to play Remington and Verity given their battles with injury this year.
Verity, a roofer by trade, has been unable to shake a hamstring problem. Remington dislocated his shoulder taking a throw-in and is set for reconstructive surgery. A renderer, Remington has not trained since the injury.
"We'll have to wait and see with Verity and Remo. They will have to get through training," Pascoe said.
"Both have been in situations like this before and Remo has played nearly a full season for me in the past with a shoulder that kept popping out and it was bloody hard watching him do that.
"He kept sticking his hand up to do it, but this one hasn't responded well. My advise to him is worry about work first and football second, until you can get it fixed.
"He may well stick his hand up for this weekend, but it's hard as a coach watching someone you've got a real affection for go through pain to play."
Thompson has also not trained since his injury.
"He might get back on the training track on Thursday night, but I don't think he'll be in the right condition to start. He might make the bench," he said.
"We had an intraclub game on Friday night and Scotty Pettit lasted only five minutes, so he's no good either.
"It is what it is, but we've got a good group coming through underneath the first-team boys and it will be a good experience for them."
Jaffas face a Magic side guaranteed to finish second on the ladder and with their focus on finals. Pascoe, though, was expecting Azzurri and Olympic to beat their bottom-three rivals and keep Jaffas out of the five.
"I think on form they are favourites, and they've both had pretty decent seasons, so you couldn't begrudge them if they get through," he said.
"We'll be disappointed, but we can only control what we can control. We'll just give it our best shot."
"Our form the past month has been good. We're undefeated the past month.
"Early doors, we had things not go our way, with a couple of individual errors that we were severely punished with goals, and some refereeing decisions, but that happens every year to every team.
"But in a 13-game season you probably don't get as good a chance for it to even itself out, but it is what it is."
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